How To Be Japanese: Beyond the Normal at The Fanatic Salon Theater

Born and raised in Japan, Miyo is a dynamic storyteller, comedian, and show curator who blends humor and heart to explore identity, culture, and human connection. A Moth StorySLAM champion, she was featured at the inaugural Moth LA StorySLAM Showcase in 2023. From solo shows to comedy stages, Miyo has performed all over Los Angeles and entertained audiences globally, delivering captivating performances that leave people laughing, reflecting, and seeing the world in new ways.

Michael D. Mortilla recently scored two feature films for Sony/Columbia Pictures and has received numerous commissions from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Library of Congress, Olympic Games, Martha Graham Dance Company, UCLA Film & TV Archive, NPR, PBS, TCM, the National Film Preservation Foundation, and others. His score for Charlie Chaplin’s “The Rink” accompanied the World’s First Internet (streaming) broadcast of a film with sound, in association with the American Film Institute (1997). Armed with a high school diploma and public school training in orchestral percussion, Michael was resident composer and on the faculty at UC Santa Barbara for 14 years, lectured at CALARTS, and has a teaching license for the City of New York. A native of Manhattan Island, he is largely self-taught in piano & composition.

Jane Morris is the Johnny Appleseed of comedy clubs, having opened the Chicago Comedy Showcase, the Second City ETC, Upfront Comedy, the Comedy Underground and currently managing the FanaticSalon in Culver City. She has most recently been seen in Brooklyn Nine-Nine, Shameless, I Am the Night, and opposite Meryl Streep in The Laundromat. She teaches writing for performance workshops every Tuesday and Wednesday evenings and performs live at the FanaticSalon on a very regular basis.